A Cage Of Butterflies Character Analysis

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Pages: 4

So far, we as a class have studied the novel ‘A Cage of Butterflies’ written by Brian Caswell in the year 1992. From my perspective, I can see that to some extent, Caswell’s novel can be expressed as a moral tale. For example, in the epilogue of the novel morals such as how ‘Everyone has something to offer, if they have the chance,’ were incorporated by the author by creating an intriguing fact that the genius like the members of the ‘thin-tank’ and the ‘Babies’ were kept from the world. From this fact, we can see that the scientist Larsen was trying to give them a chance to do something only they can offer. However, when the ‘Babies’ were brought in he became corrupted and so rose another moral how ‘One should never become corrupted’. We can …show more content…
There is also the use of short sentences that created suspense. For example, on page 95 it says ‘Down inside she went. Down through the layers of mind. Searching’ It uses the short sentences where the sentences to bring the reader to concern about Myriam’s search of Ricardo. The author also makes the audience more interested in what is going on in Ricardo’s ‘consciousness’. Brian Caswell also went through the use of figurative language such as ‘Needle-point thin’, ‘Tideless pool of information’ and ‘Emotions crashed around her like a storm-tide’ were all used in helping engage the reader and expressing the individual character’s experience. The examples above were all metaphors, exaggeration and a simile that were successfully incorporated to explore the character’s concerns, in this case Myriam’s ‘thought-dive’ that was done to find Ricardo through the layers of his …show more content…
An ideal example of the descript was on page 97 where it said, ‘The feelings were so powerful. Love. Hate. Fear which made her want to scream, a soundless mind-scream that found its echo in the whirlwind of emotion which drew her into the vortex that tore at her for control.’ From this particular example, we can understand that the author wanted ourselves, the readers to imagine the small, powerless Myriam in another dimension that was unknown to humanity but was always existing alongside ours, where she faces difficulty in trying to save Ricardo, who had retreated into the deepest layers of ‘Self’. Overall, we can see that the author, Brian Caswell had put in a large amount of effort into chapter XX (page 95-104) to intrigue and capture the reader’s mind by going through the implications of short sentences, figurative language, intricate description and even italics, making suspense and creating such images in our minds so that we may sympathise with the